Transcript

00:00:00

>> We, I hate to say this, but we essentially repealed ObamaCare because we got rid of the individual mandate which was terrible.>> The massive tax cut and reform package approved by Republicans in Congress would include repealing a crucial part of the Affordable Care Act, the individual mandate, which penalized those who didn't buy healthcare plans.

00:00:19

While killing the mandate falls short of the Republican promise of repealing ObamaCare, doing so deals a major blow to the ACA and the healthcare industry. Reuters' correspondent, Yasmeen Abutaleb.>> Health policy experts have warned that this could be devastating to the law. And a non-partisan congressional office that assesses the impacts of legislation said that, if you get rid of the individual mandate and you don't replace it with anything, you'll have 13 million fewer insured people by 2027, and over the same time period, you would have premiums that rise about 10% for most years of that decade.

00:00:55

>> Republicans repeatedly failed over the summer to pass a replacement for Obamacare. President Donald Trump has used executive authority to chip away at the law, cutting subsidies for insurers. But other aspects of the law remain in place, such as an expansion of Medicaid, and requiring insurers cover so called essential services, and preexisting conditions.

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>> We have essentially repealed Obamacare. And we'll come up with something that will be much better.>> And pressure will likely build for Republicans to fix health care problems as the country faces the 2018 midterm elections.>> The interesting thing that's been playing out over this year is basically the more the Republicans try to get rid of Obamacare, the more popular the law becomes.

00:01:36

So it's actually reached its most popular levels ever. People are scared of the prospect of losing Medicaid or losing health coverage. So we still have to wait and see how it all plays out. But so far, their efforts to get rid of the law have been highly unpopular.